Revenue at Lerøy up nearly a fifth

However, the company reports that second quarter earnings have been affected by price inflation and farming problems resulting in lower harvest weights and volumes in the first half of the year.

Chief executive, Henning Beltestad explained that the long production time for salmon means it takes time for improved performance to be reflected in the results. “We’ve been impacted in Q2 2023 by a challenging second half of 2022,” he said.

“At the same time, developments year to date have been strong in Lerøy Midt and Lerøy Aurora, while the ISA confirmations on two sites in Lerøy Sjøtroll will impact profitability in third quarter.”

The company has also been impacted by the Norwegian government’s decision to impose a rent tax of 25% on salmon farms. This ‘salmon tax’ has cost Lerøy around NOK1.7 billion (€150 million), it says.

“As well as both the obvious short- and long-term negative consequences the decision will have for the industry’s development, it must be pointed out that the resource rent tax regime places an excessive administrative burden on the industry,” said Beltestad.

“At best, this was severely underestimated in the proposal submitted to the Storting (Norway’s parliament).”

To safeguard salmon production in the future, Lerøy has been working with new technology to protect the fish from sea lice and expects to implement solutions in Lerøy Midt and Lerøy Sjøtroll in the coming months, reaching around 20% of the population by the first quarter of next year.

In terms of outlook, Beltestad says release from stock costs in aquaculture in the second half of the year are forecast to be lower than in Q2.

“The harvest volume for full-year 2023, including joint ventures, is expected to be 181,500 GWT,” he said.

“Our Wild Catch segment is impacted by lower quotas, but we have a good basis of operations for the remainder of the year. The downstream activities are showing an improvement, and this is expected to continue in the next quarter.”